268 THE EXETER ROAD 



This large village is the ' Weatherbury ' of some 

 of Mr. Thomas Hardy's Wessex stories, and the 

 Jacobean musicians' gallery of the fine unrestored 

 church is vividly reminiscent of many humorous 

 passages between the village choir in Under the 

 Greenivood Tree. An ors^an stands there now, but 

 the ' serpent,' the ' clar'net,' and the fiddles of Mr. 

 Hardy's rustic choir would still seem more at home in 

 that place. 



Between this and Dorchester, past that end of 

 Piddletown called 'Troy Town,' is Yellowham — one 

 had almost written ' Yalbury ' — Hill, crowned with 

 the lovely woodlands described so beautifully under 

 the name of ' Yalbury Woods ' in that story, and 

 drawn again in the opening scene of Far from the 

 Madding Crowd, where Gabriel Oak, invisible in his 

 leafy eyrie above the road, perceives Bathsheba's 

 feminine vanities with the looking-glass. 



Descending the western side of the hill and pass- 

 ing the broad park-lands of Kingston, we enter the 

 town of Dorchester along; the straio^lit and level road 

 runnino- through the water - meadows of the river 

 Frome. Until a few years ago this approach was 

 shaded and rendered beautiful by an avenue of stately 

 old elms that enclosed the distant picture of the town 

 as in a frame ; })ut they were cut down by the Duchy 

 of Cornwall ofiicials, in whose hands much of the sur- 

 rounding property is placed, and only the pitiful 

 stumps of them, shorn off" close to the ground, remain 

 to tell of their existence. As Dorchester is approached 

 the road is seen in the distance becoming a street, and 

 going, as straight as ever, and with a continuous rise, 



